Redesigning The Parking Professional

Signature magazine (Association Media and Publishing) asked all
gold Excel award winners to submit a blurb about the project for
which they won the award. This is what the designers for
The Parking Professional said.

BonoTom Studio had fun with this project, largely because we
felt an instant camaraderie with our main contacts at the
International Parking Institute-Henry Wallmeyer, deputy director
and Kim Fernandez, editor. We suspect the feeling was mutual.

At first we thought the subject matter might be a bit of a
challenge. It's easy to dismiss parking as boring or irrelevant.
But there was so much beauty in the provided pictures. And the
articles were about things to do with our lives, with everyone's
lives. The research that we did into parking inspired us and we
wanted other people to be able to see this magazine the way we did.
So we worked on it. . . for months. For months everyone put daily
hours, and weekly days into designing pages, nameplates, little
details on folios and sweeping ideas for overall themes. When
something was good enough to share, you pinned in on the wall-sized
chartreuse corkboard that dominates the studio. And discussion
ensued.

We work flexible schedules at BonoTom-one of our art
directors works until 7 or 8 at night. I would come in at 6 or 7 in
the morning and see his ideas on the board for review and would
want to incorporate them, or steal them to put into something with
which I working. It was weeks of coming in and being jealous of my
coworkers' skills. That's about the most diverting work I can think
of.

At the end of process my work had the most influence on the
final design. That's not unique. I think most work has a lead
influence. What was unique was that the whole studio worked on this
project, inspired each other daily with it, and created the
magazine that The Parking Professional
deserved-and man, did we have fun doing it.